


Wednesday Afternoon Story Time

by theoriginalcheeesecake



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Brotp, Fluff, Gen, carelijah, little bit of klaroline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-05-01 11:03:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5203406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoriginalcheeesecake/pseuds/theoriginalcheeesecake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elijah and Caroline trade stories over a series of afternoon teas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wednesday Afternoon Story Time

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> This will be a collection of unbetaed drabbles about Elijah regaling Caroline with tales of his past. Basically me spouting my headcanons about what Elijah got up to over his long life. There's not going to be much romance, but there will be strong Klaroline-y undertones. There will also be occasional cameos from other Mikaelsons or characters, but it'll mainly be Eli and Carebear drinking tea and swapping war stories.  
> Enjoy the first part!

“Let’s have tea.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I want to have some tea.”

“I see.”

Caroline groaned internally. You would think that after two years of living under the same roof, two people would be able to have a conversation that wasn’t strained and stilted.

But she and Elijah just hadn’t hit it off, and that wasn’t for lack of trying.

She’d tried everything from trying to initiate card games, to tagging along when he went hunting, though he rarely gave her more than a few sentences.

But she was determined for them to become friends; he was practically her family now, after all.

“Look, Klaus has been on ‘business’ for over a week now. I’ve done a very good job at keeping myself occupied, but if we’re going to keep living in the same house, Elijah, I think we should stop tiptoeing around each other.”

Elijah gave her one of his trademark deadpan expressions, but she pressed on.

“Rebekah doesn’t tiptoe around me.”

“No, she just yells and threatens you,” Elijah replied, wryly. “Then you two seem to forget your animosity in favour of retail therapy.”

It was true. It was almost as it Rebekah and Caroline were true sisters.

They would be fighting and screaming at each other the one minute, would be chatting merrily and shopping the next. No one was quicker to defend the other’s honour, but neither pretended they cared an iota about the other when questioned.

“Well, that’s better than the stoic-silent treatment I’ve got from you for the last two years!” Caroline exclaimed.

Elijah’s brow wrinkled a little, a flash of guilt crossing his features.

“And I really just want to get to know you, Elijah,” Caroline pushed. “I can only imagine the stories you could tell me.”

The guilt seemed to make way for a conflicted expression for a moment, before Elijah’s face became unreadable once more. 

“Well, Ms Forbes,” Elijah sighed. “Let us have some tea then.”

Despite looking slightly put out, Elijah offered Caroline a small, polite smile as he accepted.

Caroline beamed at him, and immediately whooshed to the kitchen to begin fussing about making tea. She’d been ramping up to this conversation for the last two days, and had made chocolate chip cookies, double choc brownies, and an apple slice in preparation. 

Once everything was prepared, and they had a steaming pot of tea, and enough sweets to send anyone diabetic on the table in front of them, Elijah and Caroline sat across from each other, quickly looking away whenever they made awkward eye contact. 

“Soooo, umm… You grew up in Mystic Falls?” Caroline asked, trying to find some common ground.

“Yes, although that isn’t the name we had for it,” Elijah replied, robotically.

“Oh, really what did you call it?”

“It was in an old tongue, you probably wouldn’t be able to say it.”

“Oh,” Caroline said, her face falling, before they lapsed back into tense silence again.

Caroline groaned internally once more. She didn’t want to have to do this – she was Miss Mystic Falls, for heavens sake, she didn’t need prompts to make conversation – but Caroline decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. 

“Wait here for just a second,” she said, whooshing to her room to grab her set of Table Topics. 

“Okay, Elijah,” Caroline said, upon her return. “Let’s play Table Topics. The way I play is, one of us asks the question on the card, we both answer, then the other person asks the question.”

Caroline said it all in a rush, overcompensating due to nerves. She really wasn’t sure why they hadn’t clicked yet, but she really hoped this would work.

“I’ll read first, shall I?” Elijah asked. Caroline smiled gratefully, glad he was making an effort. “What did you get in trouble for most when you were young?”

“Oh, definitely talking. I had a _big_ mouth. Once my mom was called to the school because the teacher kicked me out of class. When she got there and asked the principle what happened he said between the lines the teacher was just sick of hearing my voice. I was devastated, I didn’t like breaking the rules, but I also didn’t like to be quiet.” Caroline chuckled at the memory, and Elijah cracked a small smile in response. “What about you?”

“Play fighting,” Elijah stated, immediately. “Firstly with Finn, we would re-enact some of the arguments we heard around town. Then when we got older play fighting with tree branches as swords. When Finn outgrew us, Niklaus, Kol and myself would spend hours building forts and waging war on one and other. But it always lead to someone getting upset. 

Caroline grinned at the thought of child Elijah trying to calm a crying or sulking child Klaus after he lost at a game.

“Okay, which historical sporting event would you like to witness? Or I suppose in your case, have witnessed?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, the one I would have liked to witness was the first ever official football game. Or I suppose, soccer to you, which I wasn’t able to attend.”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“Well, my siblings and I had a rather large hand in the creation of the game. But I missed the first official game when a dalliance of mine turned rather… unpleasant.”

“Ooh, I’m intrigued.”

“That, Ms Forbes,” Elijah began, another wry – but somehow cheeky – smile on his lips. “Is a story for another time. And perhaps a stronger beverage.”

Caroline pouted for a moment, before giggling.  

“I’ll hold you to that! And _please_ Elijah, call me Caroline. Miss Forbes is so… formal.”

“Right you are, _Caroline_ ,” Elijah smiled. “What is you answer then?" 

“Oh right! I would have loved to see was first of the modern Olympics. Being part of something that plays such a role in our society would be pretty special.”

“You’re a fan of the Olympics?” 

“Yeah! My dad and I watched it religiously before he left, and even after he left we’d watch as much as we could together when it was on. It was really special to us.” 

“I was at the first modern Olympics, as it were.” 

“You were not,” Caroline gasped in disbelief.

“I was. Kol and I competed in fact. We attended as John and Sumner Paine, representing the United States in shooting. Kol chose the name Paine, saying that’s what we were bringing.” 

Elijah shook his head, as though he was above such childish – and obvious – jokes, but a fond, reminiscing smile played on his lips. 

“That is totally a lie!” Caroline exclaimed. 

“I assure you, Caroline, it is very true. Kol can be quite persuasive when he wants to be. It was an experience I very much enjoyed, as it happened. It was one of the last times Kol and myself had a chance to bond. He was daggered not to long thereafter.” Elijah looked slightly wistful at the memory. 

Noticing the mood shifting back to broody, Caroline snatched another card and read, “Which is more important, intelligence or common sense?” She realised it was Elijah’s turn to read, but he didn’t say anything about it, so neither did she. 

“Well,” Elijah began, “I do believe I possess both. But in others, I think that common sense leads to intelligence. So the former.” 

“I agree. Because there are different types of intelligence.” 

The two of them continued on. With each card, Caroline felt the wall between her and Elijah breaking, which was an immense relief. They played on until they’d finished their third cup of tea each, all the desserts, and the whole Table Topics pack.

Elijah smiled the first really warm smile he’d ever given her. “Thank you for a lovely afternoon, Caroline. I very much appreciated it.”

“Me too! Although, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at chocolate chip cookies again! I’m so full.” Caroline giggled.

“Agreed. But I must apologise, Caroline, and take my leave. I have business to attend to in the Quarter this evening.” Elijah got up and made his way to the door. As he reached it he heard Caroline whoosh to be beside him. 

“Can we make this a regular thing?” Caroline asked abruptly, knowing that Klaus wouldn’t be thrilled losing time with her to his brother, but also knowing that it was important to have a good relationship with _all_ the Mikaelsons, not just Klaus. 

“I think that would be pleasant. What did you have in mind?” 

“I have Wednesdays off, and Klaus allots the afternoon and evening for one-on-one, no-one-else-allowed, daddy-daughter time with Hope. And, if my observation skills are polished, you have Wednesday afternoon’s free. We could have weekly afternoon tea, either here, or out in the city, or a mix of both?”

“That sounds wonderful, Caroline.” 

“Thank you. Should we start tomorrow? You can bake me the chocolate cake that Klaus goes on about. He tells me it’s ‘glorious’.” 

“Lovely. Perhaps I’ll tell you the story of how I came about the recipe,” Elijah replied, mysteriously. 

“Oh, would you!? Is it going to be Anne Boleyn’s secret recipe or something?” 

“Hmm, similar, but no. Anne wasn’t fond of sweet food.”

“Of course she wasn’t,” Caroline chuckled. “Anyway, I’ll let you go, Elijah. Seriously, thank you for this afternoon. It was good.” 

“That it was. Goodbye for this evening, Caroline.” 

And with that Elijah was gone. Caroline smiled at the success of the afternoon. Finally she had a friend in Elijah. It felt lovely knowing that they would be hanging out consistently, not just awkwardly skirting around each other. She’d have to ask him why he’d avoided her since she moved in. 

Caroline’s mind filled with ideas about things the Originals had done in their thousand year life time. Her mind wandered to all the historical events of the last thousand years. How many had they been involved in? What would she be involved in if she lived to be a thousand? What if Elijah signed the Magna Carter, what if Rebekah was actually the Queen of Scots, what if Klaus was Jack the Ripper? 

Caroline could feel that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked!  
> I'm really not AO3 savvy, so I really don't know what I'm doing. I just want to explore this medium as well, I guess. Plz goh eezy.  
> Pop over to my tumblr (theoriginalcheeesecake) if you're down for chats. :)


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